Chicken Pie Recipe

Chicken Pie

A Chicken Pie is a pastry dough filled with chicken that was cooked in a soup with bechamel sauce and peas. This is my mom’s recipe and I used to eat a lot of it when I grew up, nowadays I can make it myself. It’s a long and complex work but it’s worth every bite, as you will soon find out…

Ingredients:

For the soup:

A big pot that can contain a little more than 1KG of chicken ( about 8 thighs), a carrot or two and some parsley (salt and pepper).

For the Bechamel:

100 g butter

300 ml of cream ( 38% is better)

Half a cup of milk

3 spoons of regular flour

a little bit nutmeg

For the pie:

1 pack (1 kg) pastry dough

1 canned peas ( I used to use peas and carrots can but I just add the carrot from the soup)

so…. It goes down like this….

Start by preparing the chicken soup.

Put the Chicken carrot and parsley in the pot ( a spoon of oil) over a high flame just cook the chicken for a few seconds to get the tastes out of the chicken before adding the water (saltNpepper).

Add water to cover everything in the pot, when it boils lower the flame and let it cook (about 45 min.)

that’s the easy part!

Take out all the chicken to a big bowl to chill.

Now you have to separate all the good parts in one bowl and the rest in another bowl ( bones, skin and other non-edible parts. ( we will use the soup as well)

Treat a dog with the chicken left overs – he will be happy (careful with the small bones)

Now make a Bechamel sauce in a little pot over a low flame.

Start with butter and nutmeg, salt and pepper.

When melted, add the flour and stir constantly.

Add the milk slowly while stirring.

Add another spoon of flour and the cream.

The flour makes it thicker and the milk and cream makes it thinner so balance it until it is nice and thick (Not porridge thick – a little less).

You need a big amount of it so if you want to enlarge the amount just add more liquids from the chicken soup (and some flour for the balance).

When ready let it chill

Put it all together:

Get a large baking container, put a baking sheet on it. (and turn on the oven on 200)

Put half the pastry dough on the bottom – make sure it fold on all sides.

Open the canned peas – wash them in cold water. (If it's frozen peas you should let them defrost in cold water and than wash and rinse them.)

Mix the clean chicken part with the clean peas in a bowl ( you can add the soft carrot from the soup as well).

Put the mixture on the pastry dough.

Spread the Bechamel sauce all over the mixture – a little more salt and pepper will be a great idea at this point.

Put the other pastry dough left on top of all this goodness.

Stab the pastry dough with a fork and put it in the oven already!

Make a little pot of rice and use the chicken soup instead of water.

At some point of the pastry baking the top will get brown and nice, take it out of the oven and spread a few spoons of chicken soup over it to add liquids and making sure the top will not burn.

It will be ready when the soup that you added dried out.

A piece of chicken pie with rice and a fresh sliced tomato, you don;t need anything more than that…

Enjoy